Alex McLeish said that the their January window overtures were doomed to failure.

Stoke were keen to trade Ricardo Fuller for Jerome, and then proposed a straight cash bid worth around £4.5 million. But McLeish and the Blues board wanted to boost the attacking options, not weaken them.

Racing Santander made a lot of noises about Nikola Zigic but never followed things through seriously.

“But I wanted to keep all the strikers and I don’t think Cameron was in a particular hurry to leave the club either, especially getting to the Carling Cup final and with a lot of important games to come up.

“It’s great that we’ve got all the strikers.”

Martins is available for Blues for the first time at St Andrew’s on Saturday and Aleksandr Hleb (ankle) should be available again after missing the vital victory at West Ham United.

McLeish would give no clues as to whether Martins would be thrown straight in for a starting debut.

He finally received his entry visa on Tuesday.

“He has trained this week, he has looked good.

“I think he can bring something to this squad. He has looked very sharp so it is something I will have to consider.”

McLeish meanwhile has insisted that Ben Foster is fine and will be ready to face Stoke.

Foster reported for England duty with a bad thumb, that has been a concern in recent weeks.

But England’s medics erred on the side of caution and Foster withdrew from the squad.

“England were very accommodating and I thank Fabio Capello and his staff for that,” said McLeish. “He fine, he is OK.”

Maik Taylor’s condition has also triggered some worry in the past few weeks.

He has not been available for Blues last three matches and in November Colin Doyle was drafted in as back-up to Foster on the substitutes bench.

McLeish said: “Maik’s just got a sore shoulder and he’s getting over that.”